Chapter 24

That night, because of the sleeping pills, An Luo slept soundly without any dreams. He didn't wake up until 7:30 the next morning, when his biological clock roused him.

When he woke up, An Luo found an unfamiliar arm around his waist, and another arm draped presumptuously across his chest.

An Luo always wrapped himself up in a quilt to sleep. Since he'd started to sleep in the same bed as An Ze, An Ze had always found another blanket to cover himself with. But last night, he didn't. And maybe because it was too cold to sleep without a quilt, he had actually stretched his arm out to hug his quilt-wrapped brother like a pillow.

Being clung to from behind like a koala, An Luo couldn't help but stiffen all over.

He forced his brother's grasp on him open, and sat up to look around. An Ze's eyes were closed and he seemed to be sleeping soundly. An Luo didn't bother himself with him. He threw the quilt over An Ze, then leaned over the side of the bed to move laboriously to the wheelchair, so he could go to the bathroom to wash his face.

Examining his face in the mirror, his lips seemed to be strangely red and swollen. Perhaps it was because he'd been eating An Ze's hot food, causing him excessive internal heat? An Ze had been feeding him according to the doctor's instructions, and An Luo's complexion had been improving.

An Luo touched his swollen lips, and then patted his face with a handful of cold water.

When he returned to the bedroom, An Ze was already up. He seemed to be in good spirits, quickly folding up the blanket in the bedroom. It was probably a habit he had picked up in the military academy. Every day when he got up, he would fold the blanket into a square at the head of the bed, and then put the pillow on top. He wasn't like An Luo, who would just straighten up the quilt.

When he was done folding the quilt, An Ze turned his head. An Luo met his gaze, and remembered the scene of being held in his arms just now. He felt a little uncomfortable, and couldn't help but look away. But An Ze didn't seem to notice. He walked up to An Luo, bending down to look at him, and asked in a low voice, "Gege, you got up so early. How did you sleep last night?"

An Luo nodded. "Well."

An Ze looked at his red lips and smiled slightly.

An Luo felt his brother's smile was inexplicable. He looked at him questioningly and said, "When did you come back last night?"

An Ze replied, "Around 12."

An Luo asked again, "Were you on a mission? How did it go?"

"It went well," An Ze said.

An Luo nodded, "Ah."

Although he wanted to ask more about the specifics, the original An Luo did not care much about others. Asking too many questions would make him seem strangely talkative, so he simply said "Ah," to end the conversation.

An Ze said, "Gege, you're not curious about what I did?"

"If it's a military secret, you don't need to tell me," An Luo said.

"It's not classified," An Ze said. "If you want to know, I can tell you."

An Luo looked up at him. "Then tell me."

An Luo was obviously curious, but pretending to be indifferent. An Ze was especially fond of his older brother's kind of empty protests. He couldn't help but smile and explain, "Last night the police asked us to help track and intercept a drug-smuggling plane in the air."

Drug smuggling?

An Luo frowned slightly. He wasn't unfamiliar with it, because his family had had an underworld business in his previous life. After his father had died and his brother had retired, An Luo had gradually left the underworld, taking his money to do legitimate business in Vancouver instead. Unexpectedly, after so many years, drug dealers were still causing the same headaches for police. Now, they were even so arrogant as to use private planes to transport drugs.

An Ze continued, "Later, the Special Investigation Team rushed to the scene and found nearly a half ton of drugs. The drug dealer who was bringing them from overseas has already been jailed. But the domestic drug cartel he was trying to sell them to hasn't been discovered yet, and the police are still investigating."

Listening to An Ze's obvious disgust talking about drugs, An Luo's heart suddenly felt complicated.

If he knew that the older brother in front of him had actually been a gangster before, would he feel disgusted?

But as long as he didn't tell them, these new family members would never know that secret. Maybe it was selfish, but compared to letting them know that this An Luo was actually a heir to an underworld family who had been reborn into this body, it was better to let them think that An Luo just had amnesia.

An Luo quickly suppressed the anxiety in his heart, and turned around to say, "I'm hungry. Let's have breakfast."

An Ze said, "I'll make you poached eggs."

An Luo tried to stop him. "Don't bother, there's bread in the fridge."

An Ze smiled. "It's not a bother. You like to eat."

He quickly left An Luo. Looking at An Ze's busy figure in the kitchen, An Luo suddenly felt an indescribable warmth in his heart. This younger brother was really kind to him. When looking after him, he was more conscientious than a highly-paid servant.

***

On Monday afternoon, An Ze sent An Luo to the military's hospital again. It was the season of blooming flowers in June. Many flowers were planted on the roadside of the military base, their various colors in full bloom. The sky was as blue and clear as washed brocade, and the breeze also brought a faint scent of flowers.

He breathed the fresh air, and his heart became clear.

After removing the cast today, he would be able to go to the hospital regularly for rehabilitation going forward, which was one step closer to being able to stand up and walk again.

An Luo was not in a hurry. He would take his time step-by-step. He would take care of his body first, and then he would sort out the criminals who wished to harm him.

He had always been able to keep his composure, and he would never resign himself to his fate.

He has always been calm and will never wait to die.

When he arrived at the orthopedic ward, Dr. Song was already waiting there. When he saw An Luo, he smiled. "An Luo, you look much better."

An Luo nodded. "Can I take off the cast now?"

Dr. Song said, "Alright, I'll take you to the treatment room."

He took An Luo to the treatment room and carefully removed his cast. An Luo felt relieved all over. The calf that had been wrapped in a cast for so long looked sickly pale, with ugly wrinkles on the skin, and it even smelled unpleasant. However, An Luo wasn't worried, because he believed he could recover.

After An Ze brought him back home in the evening, An Luo carefully cleaned himself in the bathroom, and gently wiped his legs with a warm towel. Although he didn't feel anything, it was still much better than the cast. As long as he was going in the right direction, he wouldn't be discouraged.

Even in the most difficult times, he would never lose hope or let himself be knocked down.

When he came out of the bath, An Ze was sorting things in the bedroom. He was packing a suitcase full of various changes of clothes. Tomorrow, he would officially go to the military hospital to be hospitalized. For An Luo, it just meant that his sleeping place was changing. But for An Ze, it wasn't that simple.

Noticing his brother approaching, An Ze turned his head and said softly, "Gege, after arriving at the hospital, Dr. Song will take good care of you. The nurse for your ward is named Song Yuan. She's a very attentive girl. If anyone besides the two of them approaches, you must be careful."

His eyes were serious, and An Luo also knew the seriousness of the situation. He nodded carefully, and said, "I know."

An Ze stood in front of the wheelchair, bent down and gently held An Luo's hand. "Although the military hospital is very safe, it's still a public place. It's impossible to defend effectively. Don't be careless, gege."

An Luo nodded, "Don't worry. I'll be careful."

An Ze was silent for a moment. "But tomorrow you can be at ease with the hospital's treatment. The latest treatment method developed by Dr. Song is very effective. I'll visit you every day."

An Luo replied, "Alright."

***

That night, An Luo laid in bed for a long time, unable to sleep. Although he had been sharing a bed with An Ze for the past week, he still couldn't get used to sleeping with someone next to him. Each night, An Ze would quickly fall asleep, but An Luo would lie there rigidly, shifting around, until he would gradually fall asleep.

Even though the bed was very wide, with half an arm's length of room between them, the shallow breathing of a person next to him was very clear in the quiet night. An Ze's warm smell filled his nose. The sound of him turning over and the hot temperature of his body whenever it touched him both made An Luo ill at rest.

It wasn't until the early hours of the morning that An Luo finally fell asleep. But a terrifying scene reappeared in his dreams—

It was a car accident. The car rolled off the highway. He heard little An Luo crying out for his mother, but in front of him a blaze roared... Then there was another car accident. He dreamed that he was out driving with An Yang, and were run off the highway down a hill. An Yang, with his face bloody, clutched his hand tightly and said, "Xiao Luo, you're okay."

Xiao Luo, Xiao Luo...

Who was calling him? Was it the mother with the gentle smile? Or An Yang, the older brother of his past life?

It felt like there was a stone crushing the pit of his stomach. An Luo couldn't breathe. He pressed his hands to his heart. He opened his mouth desperately, like a drowning man.

A low voice suddenly rang out in his ear, calling softly: "Gege... Gege, wake up."

An Luo struggled out of his nightmare, and found the bedside lamp on. Under the warm yellow light, just within reach, was his younger brother An Ze, looking at him with a troubled gaze.

"Did gege have nightmares again?" An Ze took a towel and gently wiped An Luo's cold sweat from his head.

An Luo clenched his fists until his heartbeat slowed, and sighed a long breath. "Mm, I dreamed of some odd things."

An Ze asked, "What things?"

An Luo frowned and didn't answer.

Seeing that he didn't want to answer, An Ze didn't ask again. He comforted An Luo in a soft voice, "Dreams are often inexplicable. Gege, you shouldn't dwell on it." Then he got up, poured a cup of warm water, and handed An Luo a sleeping pill. "It's only three o'clock right now. You should take this medicine and get a good night's rest."

An Luo nodded, and took the pill with the warm water.

After turning off the lights again to sleep, An Luo was still uneasy. The odd thing he didn't tell An Ze about was that... The two car crashes in the dream had happened exactly the same way. They were both on the highway. Both cars were knocked down a hillside. And both exploded into ash.

However, An Yang had rushed over to protect him, and he had also pulled An Yang out of the car. Although the car exploded behind them, the two brothers had been able to escape smoothly. But in the other car accident, little An Luo's mother and little An Mo's parents had been both blown up before they could escape.

These two accidents... Beside their highly similar events, were there any other connections?

An Luo frowned slightly.

It stood to reason that when he was reborn in Xilin more than twenty years later, not only had time and space changed greatly, but there wasn't any relationship between the people back then and his current home today. There could be no objective connection between the two car crashes.

However, in his sleep, he'd repeatedly dreamed of the crashes, and the scenes of the cars exploding even overlapped.... Was that just because the two accidents were too similar? Or... What could those fragmentary memories imply?

That's right—

A suspicion suddenly flashed through An Luo's mind.

Back then, the car accident he'd had with An Yang had been attempted murder. Did that mean that little An Luo's mother had died when he was seven years old because she had been murdered? Otherwise, why would a perfectly good car suddenly slide down the hill and explode? What was the connection between the death of his mother and An Luo's disappearance?

These chaotic thoughts ran through his head, as if there was an answer crying out among them. But the sleeping pill was finally taking effect, and his thoughts slowed to a halt. An Luo was finally incapable of resisting sleep. He closed his eyes and fell into a deep sleep again.

***

The next day, An Luo slept until two o'clock in the afternoon.

The tangled thoughts that had flit through his mind the last night made him uneasy. He always believed that some matters were completely connected, as if strung through by a line. As long as you could find one clue, you could explain many of your suspicions. But after thinking it over, he still couldn't figure out the connection between An Luo's mother's death and An Luo's kidnapping.

This An Luo and the An Luo who had lived twenty seven years ago were completely different life forms. He shouldn't feel this strongly about this An Luo. But what was strange was after his rebirth, he would have these unfamiliar dreams. In these dreams, he would see scenes of little An Luo playing happily with his mother.

In such a realistic scene, the strange woman's friendly smile, her warm palm when stroking his hair, and her gentle voice calling "Xiao Luo" made him mistakenly think that this child in his dream could be him.

An Luo couldn't figure out how to explain this kind of strange phenomenon.

After washing up in the bathroom, he calmed down. An Luo left the bedroom and found that An Ze was sitting in the living room reading a newspaper. Lunch was ready on the table. An Luo couldn't help but ask in confusion, "Aren't you going to work today?"

An Ze said, "Mm, today is a holiday." He put down the newspaper, walked over to push An Luo's wheelchair to the kitchen. "Gege, come eat. After you're done eating, I'll take you to the hospital."

An Luo nodded and had lunch with him.

For a little more than a week, An Ze would cook personally for him whenever he was free. An Luo's appetite had been spoiled greatly by him, having become accustomed to the soup he'd cook. An Luo, who once hadn't had much appetite, seemed to have become a greedy cat.